McIlroy: "I'm the best in the world"

Rory McIlroy is not only officially recognised as the current best player in the world by the official World Golf Rankings, he's starting to believe it too.

"I think maybe after [winning the US Open at] Congressional last year, I started thinking of myself as definitely one of the elite players,'' McIlroy said.

''You have to believe that you're the best and I certainly do believe that. And it's just a matter of going out there and showing everyone what I believe.''

Since last September, the 23-year-old golfing superstar from Northern Ireland has taken home two victories and eight top-five finishes - it's hardly suprising he's so confident in his game right now.

''I think you have to believe that you're better than anyone else,'' he said. ''On my day, I believe I can beat anyone in the world — it's just finding that capability of when you're not playing the best, to still come out on top.

''That's the thing that I'm trying to learn how to do, because I've proved in the past that when I'm on my game, I'm pretty hard to beat.''

Ominous words for the rest of the field at this week's BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, a first return to Europe for McIlroy in seven months. Particularly as he says this is one of his favourite places to play golf.

''This is a golf course I love, a golf course I came to every year since I was 10 years old,'' McIlroy recalled.

''I ran 36 holes every day. My mum and dad left me at the first tee at 8 a.m. and I didn't see them until 6 p.m. It was great.''